The First Lady Leads Regional Roll-out of the Ebola Resistant Behaviour Change Initiative. The Office of the First Lady has in collaboration with PLAN Sierra Leone concluded the roll-out phase at the district level of the Ebola resistant Change behavior Initiative. The initiative seeks to engage Paramount Chiefs, Secret Society members and traditional and religious leaders in the East, South and Northern Regions to generate support with the aim of the leaders leading change at their communities in the Ebola response. In her statement, the First Lady, Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma called on all traditional leaders to join hands in fighting the further spread of Ebola. She said that her office together with Plan Sierra Leone are engaging traditional and cultural leaders in targeting behavioral change and appealed to them all to take ownership in breaking the chain of further transmission. Mrs. Koroma says that there still remains evidence of various forms of myths, misconceptions and denial about the disease, while majority of the population believes in its existence. The persistent denial within communities about the existence of Ebola combined with the fear of the disease has fuelled the spread of the outbreak and negatively affected the response, with suspected cases not being reported, unsafe and high risk traditional burial practices still persisting she furthered. While in Kenema District in the Eastern Region the First Lady applauded them for the significant efforts made to contain the spread of the disease in the region. We will learn from your examples and implement them in the troubled areas says the First Lady. In Bo district in the South the First lady encouraged parents to keep a watchful eye on the children especially the girls as there are reports of an increase in teenage pregnancy in the region. She said that with the cooperation of the paramount chiefs, traditional leaders and healers and the secret societies they will cut the chain of transmission of the disease and the children will resume school again. In Makeni City in the Northern region, the First Lady had some strong words for the secret society, traditional leaders, healers and Chiefs. Some of you will run jail terms in specially built Ebola prisons if you refuse to stop your traditional practices says the First Lady. The Northern region is recording the most new and confirmed cases of Ebola at present and this has been attributed to the level of denial which is causing the continuous and deliberate practices of washing the dead, society initiation, circumcision, attempts to heal the sick and other forms of traditional practices. The First Lady told the traditional healers that Ebola cannot be cured by them and that any attempt to cure an Ebola patient will lead to the death of not just the patient and healer; but that the entire community would be put at risk of infection. Program Support Manager PLAN Sierra Leone Miriam Murray says that the Ebola Virus Disease has affected over 3,000 children who are now orphaned, abandoned and separated, affected over 7,000 people and killed over 2,000. She said that the disease continues to spread in communities and that the situation is worrisome and called for the individual and collective actions of all to ensure that the disease is eradicated. We want schools to reopen so that children can go back and learn and communities can carry on their farming and livelihood activities in order to take care of their families and children she went on. Mrs. Murray says that since 2014, Plan Sierra Leone’s Ebola Response Strategy has focused on Preparedness and Response focusing on: Social Mobilization, Behavior Change Communication, Community Engagement, Child Protection and Psychosocial training, Education, Health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene and livelihood with the organization actively involved in and supporting both national and district level efforts to fight the disease. According to Mrs. Murray the First Lady’s Ebola Resistant Behavior Change Initiative aligns with the social mobilization and community engagement component of Plan’s Ebola Response Strategy and Plan is delighted to support the project in the continuation of its commitment to ongoing efforts to end the outbreak in the country. She highlighted the objectives of the project which are to win over key personalities in the society for the successful fight against Ebola, to encourage the custodians of traditions and customs to champion behaviour change among their people and to put in place measures to amend social behaviour. Mrs. Murray says that the role of traditional and societal leaders in communities in the fight to end Ebola cannot be overemphasized and that traditional leaders are important in advocating and promoting sustained behavior change among their people to prevent further spread of the disease in the country. Mrs. Murray says that for this reason, Plan willingly accepted to collaborate with and support the initiative of the 1st Lady to work with the traditional rulers, societal leaders and religious leaders to mount a massive national social mobilization exercise to reach all districts with the message that Ebola should end sooner rather than later. She said that the project will be a capacity building strategy and preparedness measure for future similar disease outbreak in the country and will be documented, stored and shared widely so that other countries can learn from Sierra Leone’s experience. Lead Facilitator for the Ebola Resistant Behavior Change Initiative Cornelius Deveaux apologized to the nation on behalf of Secret Societies as it is their practices that are responsible for the continuous spread of the Ebola Virus in Sierra Leone. He called on all traditional healers, leaders, and secret Society members to suspend all activities and practices stating that the recently adopted bye-laws have banned all such activities until Ebola would have been eradicated. This is the time for us to contribute meaningfully to country, let us not be seen as a backward bunch without use in society, let us do something positive now to stop Ebola, so that tomorrow we will be remembered for the part we played in bringing this scourge to an end says Mr. Deveaux. The secret society members will be going out into their communities to look for sick people and to identify those secret society members who are hiding or treating sick people and report them to the authorities. They will be called champions, identity cards will be provided them; and they will be supplied with medical protective gears and other items to facilitate their work. BY Kojo Kwafo firstlady.sl
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 05:44:11 +0000
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